4Children works with children, young people and families through highly-rated Children’s Centres and nurseries across the country. 4Children is also an effective campaigner on child development and social policy issues. BII’s finance supported 4Children’s growth, enabling the charity to provide high quality care to more children.

Active Life is a community-owned leisure centre in Canterbury that provides affordable sports and recreation to the community. BII provided a loan to upgrade its facilities.

Barnardo's, a leading children’s charity, used investment from BII to set-up social enterprises with the surpluses used to support its work to free children’s lives from poverty, abuse and discrimination. Three social enterprises were launched: conferences, training & consultancy services for children’s services professionals, and specialist insurance.

Belu is the first carbon neutral, bottled water company in the UK. It uses compostable bottles made from corn and invests all surpluses in clean water projects. BII was one of Belu’s earliest investors. Reed Paget, Belu’s CEO, won The Independent’s 2008 Social Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Birtenshaw is a charity based outside of Bolton that provides high-quality services to children with physical and learning disabilities. BII provided finance to assist Birtenshaw acquire and refurbish property which will be used to provide a home for 3 children.

Blue Sky Development and Regeneration is a charity providing employment opportunities for ex-offenders to enable them to move successfully into long-term employment. Blue Sky currently delivers commercial contracts for municipal grounds maintenance, waste collection and recycling. Over the 7 years since it was set up, Blue Sky has employed nearly 700 ex-offenders, and of these, less than 15% have re-offended – a quarter of the national average.

The Brigade is the new restaurant, bar, private dining and events space in the historic Fire Station building in More London. It is a unique collaboration between PwC, De Vere Venues, The Beyond Food Foundation and the Homes and Communities Agency that will provide new training and employment opportunities for people at risk of homelessness. BII co-invested in the start-up of the restaurant.

For further information and a video of the programme go to http://www.beyondfoodfoundation.org.uk/

Carn Brea is a community sport centre based in Cornwall, with a focus on inclusion for the most disadvantaged. Our investment has helped Carn Brea fit cut energy costs by two thirds and will allow the Trust to spend more on developing its services.

Charity Technology Trust, is a commercially run, IT systems integration business that takes pro-bono or discounted products and services from the IT sector and packages them into value standard product offerings for charities with the aim of improving the quality and efficiency of their operations.

Chocolate Films Ltd (CFL) produce documentary and promotional films for charities, public sector bodies and arts organisations. BII provided a working capital loan to Chocolate Films.

Connection Crew is an events logistics company that employs 25% of its workforce from the ranks of the ex-homeless and whose profits go to the homeless charity Connection At St Martin’s (CSTM). Over the past five years Connection Crew provided more than 25,000 hours of paid work for formerly homeless people. BII has provide Connection Crew with finance to acquire operational software and for working capital during a period of rapid growth in 2012.

Cool2Care, a fast growing Community Interest Company, provides carers to families with disabled children using an innovative match-making model that has demonstrated benefits for the families as well as providing cost savings to users and local government. BII co-invested in the scale-up of Cool2Care.

CW Renewable Energy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the UK charity, The Converging World (“TCW”). TCW seeks to address climate change, promote sustainable development, and accelerate economic development by installing and operating renewable energy projects in the developing world, specifically wind turbines in Tamil Nadu in Southern India, and the surpluses re-invested in new renewable energy projects or upstreamed to TCW to support its social and environmental projects in India and the UK.

Digartref Ynys Mon in Anglesey supports vulnerable young people between 16 and 25 years to develop skills in their training centre. BII financed refurbishment of their accommodation for young people who may have been affected by housing issues.

East England Schools is a franchisee of 4myschools, which has developed a unique social enterprise supply teacher agency model for primary and secondary schools.
 

The East Lancashire Deaf Society based in Blackburn bought King’s Court, a listed building and have refurbished it to create a modern business centre offering office accommodation and conference facilities. King’s Court provides employment opportunities for Deaf people and helps to combat the social exclusion of Deaf people.

Fifteen Foundation, founded by Jamie Oliver, provides training for disadvantaged young people in the restaurant industry. BII financed the expansion of Fifteen’s operations during its early days. Fifteen has succeeded in giving young people a transition opportunity to a good career – latest figures show that 75% were still chefing or working in another part of the food industry.

Folkestone Sports Centre Trust Limited, based in Kent, strives to improve the health and welfare of its local community, providing affordable sports and fitness facilities to low income residents and access to physical fitness programmes for individuals with health issues. BII provided a loan to upgrade facilities.

Fusion Lifestyle is a charity operating over 50 quality sports and leisure facilities around London and the Midlands. The BII loan was for the redevelopment of the Wycombe Rye Lido in High Wycombe, which had closed to the public in 2009.

HCT is a fast-growing, award-winning Community Interest Company providing public transport that creates employment and training opportunities, as well as transport services for the elderly, children and people with disabilities. BII has financed HCT since 2006 including a growth capital investment in 2010.

Highland Home Carers (“HHC”) is an award-winning provider of at-home care services for vulnerable people in the Highlands of Scotland. HHC is 100% owned by the employees and the right to share in profits is central to the social mission of HHC incentivising staff to deliver high-quality services.

Midlands Psychology provides services to children with disabilities in the East Midlands. BII provided finance to Midlands Psychology to assist the acquisition and refurbishment of property which will be used to provide a home for 3 children.

Moneyline (formerly East Lancashire Moneyline) is a not-for-profit Industrial & Provident Society established in 2002 in Blackburn, providing unsecured microfinance loans to customers unable to access mainstream finance. Since 2011, BII has provided ELM with four loans, totalling £1.8m, to support its rapid expansion.

Mow & Grow is an award winning social enterprise which uses its innovative gardening business as a means to train and employ individuals that might historically have found sustainable employment difficult to obtain due to their backgrounds. Based in the country's most deprived wards, Mow & Grow are leading the way to help civil renewal in the surrounding areas. BII has stepped in to help Mow & Grow with a loan to support cash flow and capital expenditure to build capacity to deliver a £5 million contract with the DWP.

My Time is an award winning counselling service that provides therapy to those underserviced by traditional mental health provision such as those with a black and/or ethnic minority origin. My Time supports 600 people and can deliver therapy in 22 languages. BII’s finance will allow My Time to launch social franchises to replicate the model in 15 cities across the UK.

Neilston Community Trust is implementing an ambitious program of town renewal in the West of Scotland – this includes training, employment and inclusion of the most disadvantaged. Our investment has helped Neilston build a community wind farm, the profits from which will fund program for the next 25 years.

Pathfinder Healthcare Developments (CIC) is an innovative provider of extended primary care services, specialising in the needs of inner city multiracial populations. BII is financing the roll-out of the redesign of its extended preventative health care service in Birmingham which is anticipated to transform health service delivery.

PHASES is a charity based in Southwark which brings empty homes back into use and by doing so creates employment and training opportunities for individuals with a history of long-term unemployment, including those with a history of homelessness. BII finance will help PHASES complete a large project in South-East London which will provide social housing for up to 7 people.

Pontin Charitable Trust is an Environmental Charity making loans to environmental social enterprises in the South West.

Positive Support in Tees is a start-up mental health provider that offers bespoke care services to individuals with forensic needs to transition from institutional care to independent supported living. BII has provided a working capital loan to support further business development.

RMS Rail, part of Ealing Community Transport (ECT) one of the UK’s leading social enterprises, received a loan from BII to purchase shunting engines and develop the infrastructure of two community railway lines. ECT has since been successful at finding commercial partners to scale-up both its rail and recycling operations.

SCA Trafalgar provides high quality dentistry in areas of high dental need. It was founded in 2006 with the help of investment from Big Issue Invest, as a subsidiary of the long established social enterprise the SCA Group. It has since grown to a seven practice business, providing dental services for over 80,000 people annually. In 2013 Big Issue Invest, in partnership with RBS, supported SCA Trafalgar’s move into Dorset, with the establishment of a new NHS practice in Swanage. High quality, affordable dentistry is crucial to the health, wellbeing and prosperity of all communities and SCA Trafalgar exists to deliver that for those most in need.

Stevenage Citizens Advice Bureau won a Contract from the Legal Services Commission to provide a debt and legal counselling help line nationwide. BII financed the working capital requirements for successful contract delivery.

Talking Mats is a social enterprise delivering tools and training for those with communication difficulties. Talking Mats is led by an experienced and innovative team of Speech and Language Therapists. The Big Issue Investment is helping Talking Mats develop new products and to deliver services to more individuals.

Thames Reach is a leading charity that has been tackling homelessness in London since 1984, helping homeless and vulnerable people to find decent homes, build supportive relationships and lead fulfilling lives through a broad spectrum of services including street outreach services, hostel and specialist accommodation, tenancy support services, and learning and employment programmes. The BII investment is to support the delivery of a payment by results contract to work with 415 entrenched rough sleepers in London over the next three years.

Pines Calyx is an eco conference centre and events venue in Dover which has used state of the art low carbon, sustainable building and maintenance techniques. BII provided a loan which allowed completion of the project. In 2007, the design team won the prestigious Sustainable City Awards for excellence in sustainable building design.

The SWEET Project delivers both high quality training for social work students and support to vulnerable families and children. Our investment has helped the SWEET Project move to larger premises in South Birmingham, take on more students and deliver more services.

Thorpete provides gas installation and maintenance services, mainly for Housing Associations. It trains and employs long term unemployed young people in the East Midlands. BII financed the upgrade of its customer service IT system to improve the quality of its service.

Training for Life, led by Gordon da Silva, twice awarded Social Entrepreneur of the Year (London), helps long term unemployed return to work through entrepreneurial endeavour within small businesses such as restaurants, gymns and training centres. Known principally for its gastronomically acclaimed work at the Hoxton Apprentice, BII provided assistance to expand it operations to Dartmouth.

Turning Point, led by Lord Victor Adebowale, is one of the UK’s leading social care organisations. BII financed the start-up of Connected Care, a new model of public service delivery, which integrates health, social care and housing services to meet the needs of low-income people in the most deprived areas of England and Wales, with the community playing a central role in the design and delivery of those services.

Venture Partnership Foundation (VPF) is a mutual organisation founded by private equity and venture capital professionals which provides grant funding, social investment and professional support to scale up the trading arms of charities. BII has provided investment capital to VPF from which investments in three social enterprises have been made to date.